Gae Finch provides the music on piano as the Buena Regional High School Choir practices for its upcoming performance accompanying Kenny Rogers in Atlantic City. / Staff photo/Cody Glenn

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Choir director Lauren Canna (right) joins the Buena Regional High School Choir for a few notes as they practice for their upcoming performance accompanying Kenny Rogers in Atlantic City. / Staff photo/Cody Glenn

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Watch a video of the Buena Regional performers at thedailyjournal.com/video

BUENA VISTA — Thirty-six music students hope to make their teachers and families proud when they take the stage tonight at a sold-out Atlantic City casino concert to perform alongside country legend Kenny Rogers.

Thirty Buena Regional High School choir students will be joined by six students from Milanesi Elementary School to sing a total of nine songs in the Christmas portion of Rogers’ “Christmas and Hits Through the Years” concert at the Resorts Casino Hotel.

Rogers plans to take the stage at 9 p.m. and play a set list full of his veritable greatest hits; the second, holiday-themed portion an hour later will feature the choir students, according to Lauren Canna, who teaches the high school choir class.

“We got a phone call from the Resorts casino, and we were lucky enough to get the gig,” Canna explained. “The kids are very excited. They’ve never done anything of this magnitude before.”

Canna said her high school group will perform Christmas favorites such as “Joy To The World,” “Oh, Holy Night,” “Christmas in America,” “Go Tell It On The Mountain” and “Carol of the Bells.”

The elementary students will also perform by themselves without Rogers and his accompanying band for such Christmas favorites as “I Believe in Santa Claus,” “Painting the Town Christmas,” “Silent Night” and “Joy To The World.”

The last number will be the show’s finale, bringing both school choirs together on stage with Rogers.

“It’s so thrilling for them,” said Sharon Ricchi, who runs the music program at the elementary school. “I’m very happy for them. They have been working so hard.”

Although the students haven’t rehearsed their set with Rogers yet, they have been carefully studying YouTube videos of the country legend’s past Christmas performances, picking up cues and familiarizing themselves with the performances.

Ricchi said her students weren’t aware of Kenny Rogers’s music or his fame in the country music world. But that changed when the students saw Rogers appear on the Country Music Awards television special earlier this month.

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“He had just received the Willie Nelson award and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame,” Ricchi said of the program. “When they saw that and (Rogers) with Taylor Swift they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, he really is important.’ ”

As for the high school students, 17-year-old Emily Castro said her class has been poring over Rogers’ performances to prepare themselves.

“We’ve been studying them to make it as precise as we can,” Castro said. “It won’t seem real until we’re going to be put on that stage doing it.”

Castro said that while she and her class have performed in front of a large crowd before — most notably singing the national anthem last year at a Philadelphia Phillies game — the 17-year-old feels a proper set list of full songs lends the performance more significance.

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